Arrgh – POS Ideal Isar 35 HE is leaking CH circuit somewhere by the heat exchanger. Plumber coming on Wednesday, but any stwplumbers have an idea of what may be wrong. If it is the Heat Exchanger is it worth replacing the boiler instead as the fan has been dicky for about six months and the boiler has needed a tap by hand on the front cover to unjam the fan.

Boiler sited in the Loft, so any leaks could be a nightmare!

Intergas any good or would you recommend another make if it needs replacing?

here’s the run down, we’ve been very very lucky!

It would appear that the internal insulation had become dislodged in one corner or heat had got behind it – the whole rear face of the cast aluminium heat exchanger had been warped and melted with heat. This had caused a flame to jet out and melt the plastic tab on the air/water vent which caused the lack of pressure/no hot water and led me to investigate.

Now we have had a huge amount of problems with the boiler form the offing in 2006

1. New circuit board on installation as was faulty – Ideal came out and did this and commissioned the boiler.
2. After approx 1 year there was a fault on the fan – we paid to have replaced
3. Lack of heat in water – heat exchanger clogged up – new one
4. Load back firing – called Ideal – their engineer said it was a very dangerous situation, the spark plug/ingnition gap was about 25mm not 2-4mm so the boiler was filling with too much gas before ignition – could have blown up.
5. Another faulty fan – replaced.

I’ve found through the Gas safe register that there was a Technical Bulletin for these boilers – TB108 which states the problem of insulation becoming dislodged and advises great care on installers part.

Not sure where we stand on all this as it is long out of warranty, with a limited service history, but with what appears to be a design and manufacturing defect. In my mind the insulation should not be prone to coming loose/dislodged no matter what.

I’m going to raise the issue with the HSE tomorrow and requesting that Ideal send an engineer around to assess, yes I’m after a new boiler, but also these things are damn dangerous, the fault could have led to a house fire or worse and maybe they have had others the same.

Any advise singletrackfolk?

Photo’s to follow

Wow, sounds like you got off lightly, suck it up & buy a decent boiler, life, as you have pointed out, is to short to play with.
FWIW I would go with a Worcester Bosch.

What does the Gas Safe Technical Bulletin say ?
When was it published and who has worked on the boiler since then ?

Says that spark plug must be fitted carefully as failure to do this can cause the insulation to dislodge.

Spark replaced by Ideal, subsequent service by local large heating firm.

Doesn’t it also state :

The design modification was carried out to new appliances from October 2003.

Therefore your boiler should be one of the modified ones?

However good luck with Ideal, I will never fit another of their boilers because of their totally awful after sales, and the farce that was the Minimiser. And subsequently, according to them the most tested boiler on the market and there will be no repeat of the minimiser fiasco, also the Icos, Isar etc range which have proved as reliable as the previous offering.

From making one of the best non condensing boilers the Classic to probably one of the worst boilers ever to be released.

FWIW, Vailant boiler fitted 1985
Fault 1 pump, changed
Fault 2 button to light boiler sticking, squirt of WD 40 sorted

Bear – I’ll link to the pdf, but yeah ours should be one of the modified ones, but it does state when the ignition bit is replaced it must be done very carefully to eliminate any chance of the insulation moving. I’ll upload later.

They are utter bobbins, it’s an ISAR 35 HE – if anyone can recommend a model to replace this with would be greatly appreciated – Vailant sound good from what I’ve read.

Jones – the Vaillant boilers that there are some technical bulletins out for? Old models admittedly but happens to all manufacturers it is how they deal with it that makes a difference.
Personally I’d get rid of it don’t think you’ll get anything out of ideal.

I am a GasSafe registered engineer and have fitted in both my house and my parents house Intergas boilers. Yes they may look abit rubbish in the aesthetics department but that aside they are very efficient boilers that use the KISS principle.
They are tiny manufacturer in the Uk however in Europe they are the 2nd biggest!!
I am the Intergas breakdown engineer for my area and in the last year have only had 2 calls outs, 1 of them being a boiler wired incorrectly and the other was flux on a flow switch!

Isar’s are without doubt the worst boilers ever made. Not a day goes by at work without selling some major component of one to someone. It doesn’t help that pretty much everything costs a fortune as well.
I doubt very much that you’ll get anywhere with Ideal, it is a known issue on those boilers, in fact British Gas have a policy of replacing the burner earth pins (clips that hold the insulation back) at every service. They’ll point at your limited service history and they’ve got an instant get out right there.

Get rid and get either a Vaillant or a Worcester, get a registered installer to out either in and you should be getting a 7 year warranty. Bear in mind the warranty is only worth the paper it’s written on if you get the boiler serviced every year.